Science Cartoons of the Week

LINK TO CARTOON STRIP

Ch-Ch-Changes

I have used Raymond Chang's Text "General Chemistry" since the fall of 2000 for Intro Chem 1013 and 1023. The publisher had managed to keep the cost down and I could live with the content and pace. I had issues with how boring the text was and the constant tension that students had when I taught something a bit differently from the text.

So that is why I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week visiting Dalhousie University. The chemistry department at Dal has developed an in-house chemistry textbook written by almost the entire faculty. The intention was to strip everything from the text that wasn't actually taught in the lectures, to support the lectures with tutorial help and to test concepts and content as taught in the lectures. The text was designed to function as a lecture notebook in addition to the text itself so that a third of each page is available for notes and the binding allows the book to be opened so that each page will lie flat. Finally instead of chapters the content is divided into much shorter sections designed to be less intimidating to cover.

All in all I was very impressed. They are teaching about 1000 students in classes of about 120. We sat in on one regular lecture given by my post-doctoral supervisor. It was clear that the students had bought into the whole concept of the text and most were recording their notes directly into their textbooks.


So, I have pretty much decided to use the Dalhouse text here at ABU this coming academic year. The text should cost less to the student and we will cover everything in the text and test that content only. It is an experiment and the only difference will be the amount of tutorial support that I will have to offer in support of the lectures. I am looking forward to the change.

The Long List of Chemistry Professors Cooler Than Me

This is a link to a video that my son made from some raw tape of a demonstration that I did a while back. This may be the only proof in existence that I can move faster than a slow walk.

Link to gas demonstration video

Now, there are tons of chemistry demonstration videos out there and there are two sites that I think have done the best job of collecting them. They really are worth an evenings look for your typical science nerd or geek.

Link to Wired Science

Link to Edward Kent's Webpage

It's Only There if You Look

There have been some cool articles recently on pharmaceuticals in our water. The pharmaceuticals get there by two means 1) we take too much and it is excreted into our sewerage or 2) we just flush unused drugs. Now, it should concern us that there is a clear link between sewerage and our drinking water. I mean if Jane up river from you is taking birth control pills and is excreting the excess drug in her urine why is it showing up in my drinking water and more ominously I only know of the birth control drugs because I looked. What else is there?

In the Chemical and Engineering News article (LINK) I like the statement:

"FOR THREE SUMMERS, Kidd and her colleagues spiked a lake in Canada's Experimental Lakes Area with 17α-ethinylestradiol at a concentration of 5 ppt—a concentration that has been measured in municipal wastewaters and in river waters downstream of discharges. During the autumn that followed the first addition of the estrogenic compound, the researchers observed delayed sperm cell development in male fathead minnows—the freshwater equivalent of a canary in a coal mine. A year later, the male fathead minnows were producing eggs and had largely stopped reproducing. The minnow population began to plummet. The decline continued for an additional three years until the fish had all but disappeared from the lake."

These are the ones that seem to be everywhere in small amounts that you need to think about when you drink your glass of water:

17alpha-Ethinylestradiol (synthetic birth control)
Carbamazepine (anticonvulsant and mood stabilizing drug)
Diclofenac (nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory drug, there is a cool back story on this one concerning the vultures that "clean-up" dead bodies in India)
Fluoxetine (Prozac, antidepressant)

Now, we need to couple alarm with common sense. The concentrations are very low and far below any known toxic effect. But on the other hand, while it is true that the concentrations of birth control drugs are not going to kill fish but it will make the male fish grow eggs. I think I'd rather die. Still I will leave the risk-benefit discussion to the experts:

""The treatment processes we have are highly effective," Snyder concludes. He points out that we're seeing more pharmaceuticals in our environment because we're getting better at detecting them, not necessarily because there are more of them. It's therefore important, he says, to develop toxicologically based limits for pharmaceuticals in our water. "If we ignore concentration and say presence or absence is our litmus test, then there will be no end to that," Snyder says. "Detection does not infer health risk and nondetection does not ensure safety.""

Friday Post: But is it Cheating?

We have both chemistry and academic dishonesty in the news these days. Seems that a chemistry course at Ryerson prompted some students to create an online exchange of solutions for course quizzes and labs. When the faculty found out the host student was charged with academic dishonesty.

In the classic rationalization of this generation the main argument by the student is that since this is no different from students exchanging answers in the library they are blameless. It just doesn't sink in that when you pass in work that you claim is your own you are expected to have done it on your own. Yes, other students may be cheating by other means but you were caught.

Being open about cheating does not absolve you from cheating ... one might argue that zebras learn to run from lions not because they all get caught but because every now and then one of them gets caught.

CBC Posting / Interview on the Ryerson Case

Globe and Mail Article on Issue

Friday Cartoon

With apologies to Jorge Cham ...

LINK TO ACTUAL COMIC

Warning! This Post Will Offend You.

OK, I am going to get in trouble for this but it has to be said. Environmentalists as a group tend to be self righteous and inconsistent. Take Jabba the Hut ... I mean Al Gore and his Nobel Prize for Environmentalism. It seems that his movement itself does not seek carbon friendly alternatives for transportation and he has not significantly changed his own mansion or lifestyle to be more environmentally friendly. It is always easier to harangue others and make them feel shame then to change ones own behaviour. Perhaps that is why the modern media take delight in pointing out hypocritical inconsistencies in the lives of evangelists. Life is hard in the unblinking light at the top of the pedestal. So, there is a chemistry blog that I monitor and the young man that maintains the site has been blessed with a child. This prompted a debate on the disposable versus cloth issue.

LINK TO BLOG

Now, thankfully our family has ceased to be blessed with children and ours are graduating high school and getting drivers licences. I would expect that the next time we have to discuss the whole disposable vs cloth debate will be when the children have children or when I become incontinent (probably a close race). I do remember however the horror and pain inflicted on my wife and I when we openly (and one might say gratefully) mostly used disposable diapers. It seemed that people we did not know would go out of their way to let us know the damage that we were inflicting on the environment by using the Devil's Nappies.

OR

Now, there is a whole articulated debate out there about the issue and if one counts the "whole cost" of cloth diapers they seem to not be as benign as originally advertised. And that is one point that bugs me about environmentalists. In any accounting they make of the cost of an item they endorse they assume that time = $ 0. I mean, they invoke an earlier, simpler time when rural folk naturally "reduced-reused-recycled". What they forget is that that ethos was developed between the twin grinding stones of Poverty and Necessity.

You can see them in your churches. They are dying out now, in the same way that our war veterans are passing from society. They are older women who have lived the "simple life". And while it absolutely consumed them the pressure also changed them into the beautiful saints that they are now. (Of course, that also means that they cannot throw out a bread bag or moldy food but that is another point for another day). No these women, and reduce-reuse-recycle always depended on the women, lived in a time when there wasn't money for new anything. They had to make babies, fix meals, clothe the babies and chop wood (more often than not on the same day). This task consumed them and their bent and quite often broken bodies are testament to the harshness of their lives. This was also the reason why a lot of farmers where I grew up buried three wives before they died. Mormonism is just parallel not serial, I would like to know if Mormon wives in polygamous marriages lived longer.

My point is that labour is never free. Environmentalists always assume that people will forgo luxury and pleasure AT THEIR OWN COST for the warm glow of environmentalism. That gets me to me second point on inconsistency.

Let's take the disposable diaper and assume that Junior soils five diapers a day for a year and half (about 600 days) so that means the "waste load" = 3000 soiled diapers. Each soiled diaper might have the mass of half a kilogram (we had big babies) so that is 1500 kilograms of waste.

Now, let's examine the issue of consistency (and this is where you WILL be offended). I want to address an issue that no man may discuss. As any man has thought (but never said for this is one of those things that cannot be discussed) ... Have any of you ever noticed the similarity between advertisements for diapers and "feminine protection". They use the same words and the same illustrations. When they want to show how absorbent a diaper is they pull out a graduated cylinder with a blue liquid in it and pour it onto the diaper while extolling the "absorbency and dryness" of the item in question. Then the feminine napkin ad comes on and they do the exact same thing. I must confess the idea of a thick blue liquid coming out of my body creeps me out but this wouldn't be the first day that I thanked the good Lord for making me a stand-up pee-er. Any man that has gotten lost in Shoppers and wandered into "The Valley of the Pads" knows that in fact there is an amazing complexity to "feminine protection" that we can never understand or even contemplate. Then of course there is the napkin versus plug debate that again most men can't think about.

In essence a feminine napkin is a small diaper. Now then let's do some math. If we assume that a woman needs "protection" for 13 weeks a year over 40 years (from age 12 to 52). By the way, does anyone else think that the word "protection" in this context is a bit odd? So anyway, if we have a woman using an average of 3 pads a day for 7 days for 13 weeks a year for 40 years we have a total of 10,920 pads. Math rocks.

Now, I know that pads are smaller than diapers but I would assume that 3000 soiled diapers are at least somewhat in the same ballpark as an environmental problem as 10,920 pads. And ask yourself the garbage man's question: which would you rather stick your hand into ... a used diaper or a used pad?

So here we are ... why have the environmentalists not taken on the feminine protection industry in the same way they have the disposable diaper industry? My guess ... PMS.

How do you tell the difference between a woman with PMS and a terrorist?
You can negotiate with a terrorist.

How do you tell the difference between a woman with PMS and a pit bull?
Lipstick.

I got a million of them, I'm here all week ... try the fish.


I mean, imagine you are an environmentalist and you have a choice between making a woman feel guilty about being a lazy mother who uses disposable diapers and telling that same woman just before she needs them that she shouldn't use disposable napkins. Well, no one ever accused the environmentalists of being stupid, just mean and inconsistent. It is always easy to make women guilty and insecure about motherhood ... and it is always heartless.

No, the environmentalist lobby will go a long way towards consistency when they start spreading the news that 13 weeks a year a woman needs to be closeted with cloth napkins and a bucket of hot water. Until that day, let's agree to leave the whole disposable versus cloth diaper debate behind us (if you will forgive a little joke at the end ... oops I did it again there didn't I ... sorry about that shout out for Brittany ... now there is a lady we can all get behind ... ugh that was really bad, maybe I will just settle for Good night and Good luck).

PS. A quote on diapers that I like.

Reason says “Why must I rock the baby, wash its nappies, change its bed, smell its odour, heal its rash? It is better to remain single and live a quiet and carefree life. I will become a priest or a nun and tell my children to do the same.

Christian Faith replies: The father opens his eyes, looks at these lowly, distasteful and despised things and knows that they are adorned with divine approval as with the most precious gold or silver. God with his angels and creatures will smile – not because the nappies are washed, but because they are done in faith.”
Martin Luther, Concerning Married Life

Motto for the Year: Screw the Polar Bears

I have never liked being manipulated and I feel that the environmental movement is using the lovable polar bear to make us do their bidding. My reading of the situation is that a) there will always be more northern cold refuges where the polar bear populations will be able to survive they just won't be down by the tree line rummaging through our dumps and b) polar bears have survived in warm climates before (Link to warm climate polar bears).

So if we are not talking about the extinction of anything other than local populations of polar bears why are they the poster children of the environmental movement? Affection and shame are causing us to do what the environmentalists say. And that is exactly what the environmentalists want. Sort of like a young woman messing with the head of her fiance so that when they get married he will be so confused that all he can do is anything she says.

As a for instance, a hundred or so years ago some guy (twasn't Edison) discovered that if you put a whacking amount of electricity through metal it got hot. Thus was born the electric toaster. Later work indicated that if you pushed even more electron through the metal that it would get so hot that it would melt. But, there were some metals that when outrageously pure would have such high melting points that the metal would become incandescent if protected from oxygen in the air. One such metal was wolfram, or as we call it, tungsten. Suddenly a metal with no earthly good was crucial to modern society. What was nice about tungsten was that it was pretty much benign in the environment.

Then again, there was the issue of efficiency, as any girl with an Easy Bake oven knows light bulbs throw off a huge amount of heat and that heat is wasted energy. So the environmentalists, remember the environmentalists? This is a posting about environmentalists so don't forget them. The environmentalists used the polar bears to convince us that we should not use our old incandescent bulbs but should switch to more energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. They are more efficient because they generate light by electrically exciting metal atoms dispersed in a vacuum tube. Oh yeah, the metal atoms are Mercury.

You know what? There is a fascinating math concerning compact fluorescent bulbs. Each bulb contains 30 mg of Mercury so the one billion compact fluorescent bulbs out there now mean that we have inserted 30 billion milligrams of mercury or 30 million grams of mercury or 30 thousand kilograms of mercury. The metric system rocks.

Now, in the good old Victorian days you could wander down to the local pharmacy and purchase 5 pounds of liquid mercury and swallow it. The liquid slug of metal would rocket through your system until it reached the "back door" where it would politely knock and ask to be let out. As if. That five pound slug of mercury would hit the "back door" like the famous stop motion shot of the bullet and the apple.

This was one of the Victorian remedies for constipation and was advertised as a way to "untwist the gut". You know what is most disturbing about this story? They captured the mercury and used it for the next customer. Eewww. They must have been seriously afraid of constipation in those days to slam down "recycled" mercury.

Anyhoo, we have discovered over the years that mercury is a very dangerous metal. In water systems where there are minerals and organic materials a complex chemistry occurs that gives organo-mercury species that in even trace amounts can cause serious neurological damage. This is also true for mercury that gets into the lungs and gets trapped. So the two things that we should avoid are: 1) mercury in our water and 2) mercury in our air.

Back to the compact fluorescent bulbs. How do they work? They have gaseous mercury atoms excited in an electric field. Where do you suppose those mercury atoms go when you break the tube? Hmmm? And now we have 30 million grams of mercury in small lots spread all over this great land. Man, I am glad I am not walking around with the next generation of mankind in my pelvis.

You know how you are not supposed to throw away rechargeable batteries because they contain nickle and cadmium (or at least they used to) on the idea that we should keep heavy metals out of the environment? And What do you suppose was the rate of return for batteries? Yeah, I would be surprised if more that 10% escaped the garbage. Now think about the compact fluorescent bulbs. Well, we knew all this before the polar bears got involved and the environmentalists knew it too.

So now that we all feel virtuous about changing to compact fluorescent bulbs a new study comes out exposing the environmental danger of the stupid things. I guess we just need to wait to find out what the environmentalists and the polar bears will make us do next. I'm thinking candles.

LINK TO ARTICLE ON HAZARDS OF COMPACT FLUORESCENT BULBS

Professor H knows what he wants for his birthday

Oh yes, this is the graduated cylinder that I have waited for my entire life.

Link to item

Christian Chemistry

People have either offered me the opinion or suggested that Chemistry is a pursuit of truth that is independent of any system of morals or ethics. They then challenge me to show them what "Christian Chemistry" would look like and how it would be different from "Secular Chemistry". I do not know, and in fact doubt, that the chemical engineer in this article is a Christian but the goal of his research, the selfless pursuit of that goal and the humble giving away of the valuable patent rights so that more poor people would benefit are all hallmarks of what Christians that happen to be Chemists should be doing. I was fascinated and challenged by the article. The chemistry is mundane and amazing at the same time. I have concerns that any significant increase in cost is a killer though.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080212.wsalt12/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/

Found on the Web: Sheldon

I like this strip. It seems to have been written by a nerdy liberal arts kinda guy.

Link to Comic Strip: Sheldon

Found on the Web

You know what? This is exactly how I felt until I graduated from grad school.

Continuing Thread: Periodic Tables

LINK TO SITE

I am going to start collecting these sites because they speak to the iconic nature of the periodic table and physical science. At this site a bunch of blissed out hippies felt they could bridge science and society by making prints that they labelled for the different elements. Some elements like Cu they had a grip on but some they just spoke to their "inner chemist" to make the panel.

Found on the Web: Different Kinds of Failure

I came across this link to a website that collects pictures of the different kinds of failure. Some of the pictures are political, some are lolcats and some are photoshopped but the one I like is this one (I remember when this happened):But this one made me laugh too:

LINK TO WEBSITE

And then there is this website that is similar but more focused on people like this who remind you that you are not REALLY having a bad day if your document won't print:

LINK TO WEBSITE

Made Me Think, Made My Head Hurt

There is a website that I stumbled across where intellectuals were asked if they have ever changed their minds about something important and asked them to write about it. It is astonishing the breadth of response and some of it is heavy reading but it all makes me think.

The question this year was framed this way:

The Edge Annual Question — 2008

When thinking changes your mind, that's philosophy.
When God changes your mind, that's faith.
When facts change your mind, that's science.

WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?

Science is based on evidence.
What happens when the data change?
How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?"

http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_index.html

Would the last ABU student to leave the Internet please turn off the light?

Really? It has come to this? What ennui? Malaise? Karma? .... Secrets?

Found on Facebook: Very Disturbing Images

A very serious issue has been raised on Facebook concerning the use of ABU lab glassware. What is most disturbing is that the image on the far left is the MOST RECENT image. We need to know ... are these the same E-flask?

Found on the Web

I liked this but the description makes the reaction more mysterious then it actually is.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/video-of-a-beau.html

Found on the Web

This cartoon is interesting because it seems to argue that the original study was flawed but a truely objective statistical analysis is independent of history it simply measures the current situation. There is a dangerous and somewhat shrill message of danger here for social scientists.

LINK TO CARTOON

How Things Have Changed

I came across a Flicker site that has scans of the pages from the 1962 Sears Christmas catalogue. It is interesting to read just for the fun of it (remember the inflation conversion is about one 1962 $ = ~ seven 2007 $).

Link to Flicker album of Sears catalogue scans

However, it was of course this page that caught my eye:

With this detail:You gotta love a chemistry set that allows you to work with "harmless radioactive" chemicals. Ah, the 1960's you had to live then to understand.

Gotta See This (New and Expanded)

Any student of physical science just gotta see this:

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/video/82-dangerous_science.html

There are a number of messages in the video, some I agree with and some I disagree with.

The whole idea that fear of litigation has gutted the "fun" from the typical chemistry set is, in my opinion, true. I agree that what we are left with is hardly the kind of self-taught chemistry that allows a young person to walk the teaching line between wonder and peril.

On the other hand, the video spends a lot of time with it's focus on a guerrilla science supply company that does not even follow the most rudimentary, let alone common sense, safety rules. That I do not agree with.

I got my first chemistry set back in the early 1970's over the objections of my mother and I was assigned a "lab space" under the basement steps. The chemistry set was pretty much like the set shown above but with about 35 chemicals in one ounce bottles (yes, children ounce or approximately 25.4 grams I was part of the transition generation from British to metric measure).

The line at the end is one that I have difficulty agreeing with as well. The point that science teachers need to be brave enough to teach. The law is just not in favour of the teacher when students get hurt. The point about the football team and injuries is one that Science teachers have made over the years but the reality is that society expects a certain acceptable number and kind of injury for sports teams but not science labs.

That said, I really liked this video and I am going to look through the site library for more.

Sheldon Gets It Right: Wikipedia

As I said, I like the cut of this guys jib ... at least this is a more academic topic and drives directly to the "research" that most students do for their papers.

Now, if only this last panel were true ...

Sheldon Gets It Right: Lord of the Rings

I have been reading Sheldon for a couple of years now and while it seems to be a "nerd niche" cartoon I really like the points that the artist Dave Kellet makes now and then.

Link to Cartoon

He recently took on "The Lord of the Rings"
(Click on the cartoon to see full size)

Now, I love "The Lord of the Rings" I read the entire cycle from "The Hobbit" through to the "Simarillion" every other year. If there is one character that makes my teeth ache more than Tom Bombadil it would have to be the generically smug elves.

Too True

Quote of the Day

“How can resourcefulness be acquired? Do it by pumping into man information? No, not at all. There is only one thing that will really train the human mind, and that is the voluntary use of the mind by the man himself. You may aid him, you may guide him, you may suggest to him, and, above all, you may inspire him; but the only thing that is worth having is that he gets by his own exertions, and what he gets is proportional to the effort he puts into it. It is the voluntary exercise of his own mind and I care very little about what he exercises it upon…”

A. Lawrence Lowell (1939)

Old, But I liked these when I read them

Found on the internet:
www.calvin.edu/~lhaarsma/parables.html

Parables for Modern Academia
By Deborah and Loren Haarsma December, 1996

The kingdom of heaven is like a professor who went off on a long sabbatical. Before he left, he called together his graduate students and gave each of them projects to work on; to one he gave five projects, to another two, and to another one, each according to their ability. The one who received five projects immediately went to work, designing experiments, building equipment, and analyzing data. She worked long and hard, and eventually she achieved good results on each project. Likewise, the one who received two projects immediately went to work, and eventually got results as well. But the student who received one project was easily discouraged, got distracted by her coursework, and eventually gave up.
After a very long time, the professor returned to settle accounts with his students. The first student said, "Professor, you gave me these projects to work on, and see, here are the results." And the professor answered, "Well done, good and faithful graduate student. You have been faithful over five projects. You shall be co-author on five publications and receive a Ph.D! (And you can expect a good letter of recommendation, too!)" Likewise the second student showed his results, and the professor said, "Well done, good and faithful student. You have been faithful over two projects. You will be co-author on two publications, and receive a Master's degree."
But the third student came and said, "Professor, I know that you are a harsh man, publishing where you did not labor, and claiming credit where you did not contribute, and I was afraid. So I kept the lab locked up and I didn't let anyone borrow any equipment. See, everything is just the way you left it." Then the professor answered, "You wicked and slothful graduate student! I will judge you by your own words. So, you knew that I was a harsh man, publishing where I did not labor, and claiming credit where I did not contribute; well then, you should have at least gotten a teaching fellowship so that I wouldn't have had to pay your salary out of my research grants! Now depart from me and from this institution ... out into the REAL world, and try to find a job. There you will have weeping and gnashing of teeth."
For to everyone who has, more will be given. But to him who has not, even what little he has will be taken away. (Matthew 25:14-30)

The kingdom of heaven is like an original manuscript in a used book store. When a historian found it, she sold all her other books to buy the manuscript. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a scientist looking for new projects. When he found one theory of great promise, he joyfully gave up all his other projects to focus on it. (Matt 13:44-46)

Suppose one of you wants to start a research project. Will he not first sit down and estimate if his grant is large enough to cover the cost of equipment, salaries, and overhead? For if his grant runs out halfway through, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, "This fellow began a project and was not able to finish." In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be Jesus' disciple. (Luke 14:28-29, 33)

The dean was speaking at a faculty meeting. One of the professors stood up and asked, "What must I do to get tenure?" The dean replied, "What does the faculty manual say?" The professor answered, "Do good research, teach well, and mentor students." "You have answered correctly," the dean replied. "Do this and you will get tenure."
But the professor wanted to justify himself, so he asked the dean, "What does it mean to mentor students?" In reply the dean said: "One term there was a student who was struggling in his courses. He went to talk about it to the professor of one of his classes, but the professor brushed him off with, "If you can't handle the work, you should drop the course." The student then went to his academic advisor, but she was on her way out the door to the airport and didn't have time to talk. A custodian overheard the conversation, and, seeing the discouragement of the student, invited him out for a cup of coffee. It turned out the student was dealing with the death of a family member, and the stress was affecting his personal life as much as his studies. The custodian walked him to the counseling center and arranged an appointment for him. He called the student several times in the next few weeks to see how things were going, and helped him think through whether to drop the courses or not. Now, which one of these was the true mentor to the student?" The professor replied, "The one who had mercy on him." The dean told him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:25-37)

When you are writing a paper about exciting new data, do not overstate the impact of your result. Someone else may come along later with better data and prove you wrong, and then you will be humiliated and your colleagues will not respect your work. But when you have an exciting new result, be modest about its implications. Then when the review paper comes out, it will say, "This is an important piece of work," and you will be honored in the presence of all your colleagues. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 14:7-11)

Obedience:There was a professor who had two grad students. She went to the first and said, "Take care of this project for me." "I will not," he answered, but later he changed his mind and did it. Then the advisor went to the other grad student and said the same thing. She answered, "I will do it," but she did not. Which of the two did what the advisor wanted? (Matt 21:28-31)
Appropriate religious observance:No one runs untested code on a network server, for the code may crash and take down the server. Likewise, no one puts old format data files into new databases. The new database will be corrupted, and the data will be lost. No, you put new-format data into new databases. (Matt 9:14-17)

Responses to the gospel: A researcher published an exciting new theory. Some readers didn't understand it, and quickly forgot it. Other readers were too busy with their own work to test the new theory. Others immediately went to work and got preliminary results, but the difficulties of performing the proper controls and testing for systematic errors discouraged them. Still others tested the theory and produced not only confirming data, but also new data and new theories to test. (Matt 13:3-8, 18-23)

The kingdom of heaven is like a department chair checking on the progress of the graduate students. She came to a graduate student who was supposed to turn in his thesis that week, but had procrastinated and hadn't started to analyze data yet. The department chair reminded him that there was no more funding for him after this term. The grad student pleaded with her. "Be patient with me," he begged, "and I will finish the thesis by the deadline." The department chair took pity on him, and told him she would let him re-enroll and would find money somewhere for another term. But when the graduate student went out, he ran into one of the undergraduates in the course he was grading. He yelled at the student, "Where is your homework? It's a day late!" The undergraduate begged him, "Be patient with me, and I will turn it in tomorrow." But the grad student refused and said, "No. I'm giving you a zero and you're failing the course!" When the other students saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told the department chair everything that had happened. Then the chair called the graduate student in. "You wicked student," she said, "I forgave you for procrastinating on your thesis because you begged me. Shouldn't you have had mercy on the undergraduate just as I had on you?" In anger the chair expelled him from the department, to find a job until he could finish his thesis. This is how the heavenly Father will treat each of us unless we forgive our brothers from the heart. (Matt 18:23-35)

In a certain department there was a chairman who neither feared God nor cared about students. There was a student in that department who kept coming to him with the plea, "Grant me justice in my petition." For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself, "Even though I don't fear God or care about students, yet because this student keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!" Listen to what the unjust department chair says. Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you he will see that they get justice, and quickly. (Luke 18:2-8)

The kingdom of heaven is like a student who left one research group to work in another. His former advisor was demanding and manipulative; she coerced the student to continue to work on her projects without pay, threatening not to acknowledge his work in the publication. The student's new advisor called a group meeting, but the student was too ashamed to come. He had no new results to report, for he had spent all his time on the old advisor's projects. When the professor asked where he was, the other students explained. The professor was frustrated and said, "This has been going on for months! He'll never be able to pull away on his own. Tell him that if he has any trouble with the other professor, I will handle it. I'm paying his salary and I want him to spend his time working for me." (based on a true story)
There was a biology professor whose graduate student was accused of wasting time. So she called him in and asked him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of what you have done because you cannot be my student any longer."
The student said to himself, "What shall I do now? My professor is taking away my funding. I don't have good enough work habits to get a real job, and I'm too proud to move back in with my parents. I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, other research groups will hire me as a technician."
So he called each of his professor's competitors. He asked the first, "How much of that gene have you cloned so far?" "Only about 40 percent," she replied. The student answered, "I'll tell you the parts that you're missing." Then he asked the second, "Have you decided what experiments you're going to do next?" "We're still deciding that," the second replied. The student answered, "I'll tell you what ideas we've discussed in our lab."
The professor commended the dishonest student because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of light should be just as shrewd in doing good as the people of this world are in doing evil. (Luke 16:1-8, Matt 10:16)

The grant proposals of a certain professor were all approved. She thought to herself, "What shall I do? My lab space isn't big enough for all these projects." Then she said, "This is what I'll do. I'll get brand new lab space and hire many new post-docs and graduate students. And I'll say to myself, 'You have tenure and many research projects which will produce papers for years to come. Take life easy; go to conferences and take sabbaticals.'"
But God said to her, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God. (Luke 12:16-21)

The kingdom of heaven is like an array of sensors left to monitor an experiment. When the experiment was over, the scientists downloaded the data. They saved the data from the good sensors for further analysis, and threw away the data from the bad sensors. This is how it will be at the end of the age. (Matt 13:47-50)

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a programmer who started many processes on her computer. While everyone was sleeping, a hacker broke in and started some counterfeit jobs, which began using some of the CPU time. The programmer's assistants said, "Didn't you start useful jobs on the computer? Where then did these counterfeits come from?" "A hacker did this, " she replied. The assistants asked her, "Do you want us to kill the jobs?" "No," she answered, "because while you are killing them, some good processes might be interrupted by accident. Let them all go to completion. Then we will purge every counterfeit process from the disk and memory, and save the results of every good process onto permanent tape." (Matt 13:24-30)
The kingdom of heaven is like a professor who had many papers to grade. She asked her teaching assistants to start helping her early in the morning, and agreed to take them all out to dinner when the grading was finished. About mid-morning she realized she would need more help, so when she saw other graduate students standing in the hallway doing nothing, she asked them to help her, and agreed to reward them appropriately. Again at noon she found other graduate students eating lunch, and got them to help her, and again at mid-afternoon. About 5 p.m. she found still others and asked, "Why are you standing around doing nothing? Come and help me grade my papers."
When they were finished grading, the professor took them all to a restaurant. When she paid for the dinners of those who had started work at 5 o'clock, those who started early in the morning expected to receive more. But when she only paid for their dinner too, they began to grumble, "These others who only worked one hour got just as much as we did, who slaved all day over those papers." But the professor answered, "I am not being unfair to you. You got what we agreed upon. I want to give the students who only graded one hour as much as I gave you. Don't I have that right? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
So the last will be first and the first will be last. (Matt 20:1-16)

The kingdom of heaven is like a college president who was hosting a banquet for an important donor. He sent announcements to all the important administrators and faculty, but they all began to make excuses. The first said, "I just received some new lab equipment, and I want to try it out, so I cannot come." Another said, "My book just got published, and I must make sure the bookstores and libraries have copies, so I cannot come." Still another said, "I'm on sabbatical, so I cannot come."
When the RSVP's came back, the president was angry and told his assistant, "Go quickly into the classrooms, dorms, and offices and bring in the graduate students, undergraduates, and staff." "Sir," said the assistant, "what you ordered has been done, but the banquet hall still isn't full." Then the president said, "Go to other colleges down the road, and invite them to come! The banquet hall must be filled! I tell you, not one of those who were invited first will be let in the door." (Luke 14:16-24)

How can a student, whom her professor put in charge of his research projects, be faithful and wise? It will be good if the professor finds the research assistant working hard when he returns; surely, he will give her an excellent recommendation. But suppose that research assistant is wicked and says to herself, "My professor is staying away a long time," and she begins to misuse the equipment and spend her time surfing the web. The professor will walk into the lab on a day she does not expect and at an hour when she is not aware. He will reprimand and humiliate the student and take away her funding; then there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt 24:45-51)

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten students waiting for a professor to return to his office. They needed his signature to add his course, and the forms were due early the next day. Five were wise and five were foolish. The wise ones brought something to eat while they waited, but the foolish ones did not. The professor was a long time in coming, and as they waited all afternoon, they got very hungry. The foolish ones said, "Give us some of your food." But the wise ones answered, "No, we only brought enough for ourselves, and there isn't enough to share. Go to the cafeteria and buy something." But while they were on their way to the cafeteria, the professor arrived. He signed the forms of those who were waiting, then locked his office and went home. Later that evening, the others telephoned him at home and said, "Sir! Sir! Come back and sign our forms." But he replied, "I tell you the truth, you are not my students." Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. (Matt 25:1-13)

Therefore, whoever hears these teachings and puts them into practice is like a wise scholar who built his theory upon data. The criticisms came down, the controversies rose, and the counter-arguments blew and beat against the theory, but it did not fall apart, because it had its foundation in data. But whoever hears these teachings and does not put them into practice is like a foolish scholar who built his theory upon conjecture. The criticisms came down, the controversies rose, and the counter-arguments blew and beat against the theory, and it failed spectacularly. (Matt 7:24-27)

(Added June, 2000)
There was a professor who was mentoring two post-docs for whom she had high hopes. One day the younger one said, "Professor, give me my share of the research grants." So she divided her grants and projects between them. Not long after that, the younger post-doc packed up his equipment and left for another institution. He squandered his resources pursuing trendy pseudoscience, going on talk shows and publishing outlandish theories. After his funds ran out, the media lost interest in him and he couldn't get another grant. He took a job doing public relations for a self-proclaimed psychic. He longed to do even a single controlled study, but he wasn't allowed. When he came to his senses, he said, "My old professor's technicians do lots of interesting work, while I hate my job. I will return and say, 'I blew it. I am no longer worthy to be your post-doc. Please hire me as a technician.'"
So he returned to his old institution. But while he was still walking up the sidewalk, the professor saw him and ran to meet him. "Professor," he said, "I blew it. I am no longer worthy to be your post-doc." But she said to her workers, "Quick, clean out the corner office for him to use. Get him an I.D. card and a computer account. Call the institute's caterers and order their best spread and champagne. For my post-doc was lost, but has returned." So they began to celebrate.
Meanwhile, the older post-doc was working down the hall. When he came near the main office, he heard laughter and music. He stopped one of the technicians in the hall and asked him what was happening. "Your younger colleague has returned," he replied, "and the professor is throwing a party." The older post-doc went sulking back to his office. So the professor went to him and pleaded with him. But he answered, "Look, all these years I've been slaving for you, always second author on your papers, and you've never even sent out for pizza for me. But this other guy squanders your grants and reputation on junk science, and you throw a big party for him!"
The professor said, "You've always been my partner, and all of my projects are your projects. But we have to celebrate and be glad, because your colleague was ruined, and has been restored; he was lost to us, but has been found."

((Copyright reserved by Deborah and Loren Haarsma. May be freely distributed electronically in whole or in part, but please keep this notice attached and do not alter the text.))

And This is Your Brain on Religion

Recent advances in the field of neuro-theology

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa013&articleID=434D7C62-E7F2-99DF-37CC9814533B90D7&pageNumber=1&catID=2

Too True

Cute ... Disturbing but Cute

Check this out, the LOL Cats are now singing about chemistry!

http://rathergood.com/soluble/

Fundamental Constants

You know, I like the definition of a kilogram as being the mass of one liter of pure water but there are the problems related to exactly reproducing the physical conditions so the genuises at the heart of the metric system had to have physical artifacts to which all samples would be referenced. This article is an amazing admission of the limitations of having physical reference objects.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/12/shrinking.kilogram.ap/index.html

Coins and Metal Prices ... The Story Continues

Link to Globe and Mail Story : Soaring metals prices mean making money costs U.S. a mint (Thursday, August 16, 2007)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070816.IBPENNY16/TPStory/

"Because of a surge in the price of copper, the U.S. Mint decided 25 years ago to manufacture the coins almost entirely with zinc, save for the coating on which Abraham Lincoln's profile is engraved.
Now, the fate of the penny is up in the air once again. With the price of zinc soaring amid a worldwide commodities boom, it costs the government almost 2 cents to make each 1-cent coin - a pretty penny considering roughly eight billion new ones are placed into circulation annually.
While it is unlikely the penny will be pulled from circulation, there are some lawmakers who would like to ditch zinc as a raw material and instead use steel or some other less expensive metal."

...

"Francois Velde, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said the federal government should rid the U.S. currency of pennies, or at the very least find a cheaper way to make them.
Mr. Velde noted that equivalent coins in Canada, Britain and Europe are made from steel, which is roughly five times less expensive than zinc.
Mr. Weller said Jarden, which produces coin blanks for more than two dozen countries, is "agnostic" about the penny's metal content.
"Should Congress or the Mint suggest a different metal composition, like copper-plated steel or copper-plated aluminum, I'm sure Jarden would be interested in talking to the Mint about their capabilities," he said."

Internet Gleanings

Perspective

http://comics.com/wash/opus/archive/opus-20070805.html

Match Chemistry In the News

Video link to group effort to collect 30,000 match heads in one bucket.
Almost like a collection at church.

Link to match head video

Wikipedia link to match chemistry

Strike anywhere matches:
Phosphorus sesquisulphide [P4S3],
Potassium chlorate [KClO3]

Link to chemistry of related explosive mixtures